


Weight of Command

by kelex



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Episode Related, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-07
Updated: 2013-08-07
Packaged: 2017-12-22 17:39:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/916135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kelex/pseuds/kelex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Atlas isn't the only one carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, but then again, Atlas wasn't Canadian, either.  Spoilers for <i>Adrift.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Weight of Command

A brief flare in the darkness. _If you dumb this down anymore, you're going to get hit._ John, that was really John, the way Rodney had always known him.

But that was the only flare, because everything else was just… darkness.

Not just literal darkness, which was an actual possibility because of the systems failure on Atlantis, but more metaphorical darkness, the dark night of the heart or soul or whatever metaphysical thing that people had a dark night of.

Elizabeth, the city decompression, the loss of the repair team, the asteroids, the jumpers. John suddenly thrust into command of the entire Atlantis mission. He couldn't even stop to think, barely had time to ask John how Elizabeth was doing before going back to work, compress the shield so that it only protected the tower and the ZedPM--

_We're gonna lose those guys!_

_Don't you think I know that?_

_You gotta keep me in the loop, Rodney._

No way to calm down, no way to stop, no way to think. No way to talk to John and give him a chance to get out what's going on in his head. That is what was hurting Rodney the most, the fact that not only could his mind not stop and shut down, but he couldn't stop one part of his mind for John. Usually he could do that; two halves of his brain might be working and problem-solving while another part was routing a diagnostic on whatever system he was working on and even a fourth part was working on decoding the Replicator programming, and he still had a section of brain that could stop computing, listen to John, laugh and make stupid jokes and compare himself to Newton or Einstein and not come up short.

You know, the things that kept him relatively close to sane.

Instead, every bit of Rodney's mind was focused on the Atlantis problem, on power conduits and unnecessary systems and of green text on the screen, bio signatures terminated. And of John's voice in his ears. _We're gonna lose those guys._

Don't you think I know that?

The End


End file.
